Half A Life
by Karine1
Summary: A tragedy occurred during the birth of the twins, and Elrond is left to raise his only son, Elladan, alone. Full summary inside


**Half A Life**  
  
**By:** Karine  
  
**Rating:** PG 13  
  
**Disclaimer:** *pondering who she should believe, The Voices are telling her that she own everything; the Layers are saying that it belong to Tolkien*  
  
**Summary:** A tragedy occurred during the birth of the twins, and Elrond is left to raise his only son, Elladan, alone. Feeling like he should protect his son from the grief he bears, he never tells him about his lost twin. Elladan live an empty life, feeling a part of him missing without knowing why. When he learns the reason why, this truth might do more damage then any lies…  
  
**A/N:** Everything that happen in this fic is *not* my fault. I didn't wanted to write it, but noooo, as soon as I showed the p/b to Trin, she THREATENED me to get me to write it. So I had to gave in and write it *sigh dramatically*   
  
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Chapter One

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One new life, Two lost

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Elves, unlike men, have the option of "choosing" when to get pregnant. It was a fact that was treasured by them, since it gave them the power to decide when they would have children. There were various reasons why this came useful, two of them being that one: the couple had time to be truly ready for parenthood; and two was also the fact that no elf wished to give birth to a baby in time of darkness. For Elrond and Celebrian, both reasons applied.   
  
And so it was that after hundreds of years of marriage, they deemed that with Arda in relative peace, the time was right to bring a child to the world. Their first attempt was successful, and Elrond soon learned that his beloved was expecting. That was the first surprise, the second would come mere hours before the birth, where he would learn that his Lady was expecting twins, not only one which he had believed all the way.   
  
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*~*Nine Months Later*~*

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Celebrian awoke to a dull pain in her stomach, a feeling that only lasted half a minute. Shrugging it off, she decided to get out of bed, knowing fully that she could not have fallen back to sleep, not with only a few hours close to dawn. With one hand carefully clutching her over-sized belly, she slowly made her way to one of the multiple cushioned chairs in the room, picking up a book from a nearby table and started to read.   
  
The same pain that had roused her came back an hour later with a slight vengeance. The Lady of Imladris hadn't expected it and she nearly dropped her book in surprise. Like the first one, this wave of pain did not last long and as soon as it had left, she went back into her reading, not taking any particular attention to those two jolts of pain.   
  
The next one was more than a dull ache ... a lot more. Celebrian doubled over at the throbbing in her stomach, letting out a small cry of pain and dropping her book in the process. This caused her husband to wake up and rush to her side faster than usual.   
  
"What's wrong my love?" He asked, his voice laced with concern.   
  
"I..I think that the babies are coming," She replied, sounding exhausted yet proud.   
  
It should be known that Elrond never missed a word in a conversation, more so when it was his wife whom he was talking to. And this time would be no exception. He had clearly heard the word "babies" not "baby", and this took him by surprise.   
  
"B..babies?" He finally sputtered.   
  
"We're having twins my love, didn't Glorfindel tell you?"   
  
'Note to self: whack Glorfindel immediately after the birthing.'   
  
Seeing that her husband didn't reply, she continued.   
  
"I wonder why, since he himself told me he would tell you when he found out."   
  
'With something really hard…' Elrond added to his "note".   
  
"It's not like Glorfindel to forget something as big as this, especially since he has known for three months."   
  
'Scratch that, knowing his *deep love* for dwarves, I'm sending him on a one year "learning trip" to the Lonely Mountain.' With that settled, he finally found his voice back and said.   
  
"Well, this is wonderful news anyway Cel." He said while kissing her brow.   
  
After Elrond over came the shock that he was about to have two children, they started to talk - or rather, argue - about how they would name them. Twenty minutes later, the conversation was abruptly stopped when Celebrian got struck by another contraction, stronger then the previous one.   
  
Elrond held her hand all throughout it and they both breathed a sigh of relief when it had passed. After a few minutes, Celebrian's breathing had come back to normal and Elrond asked.   
  
"I suspect that you still want to give birth in this room?"   
  
After his beloved had nodded, the Lord of Imladris stood.   
  
"I'm going to get everything I will need for the births and bring it here."   
  
Elrond was almost out the door when he heard his wife's voice. "You'd better hurry El, my water just broke."   
  
**

*~*Four hours later*~*

**  
  
The first baby had been delivered fine, his health perfect and he was only smaller than a normal baby should be, but that had been expected. His twin though, was another matter entirely.   
  
Celebrian had been exhausted after the first birth, and she had none of her energy left for the second. But they were slowly getting there, and after a lot of forcing, she poured all of her strength into that one last push. The baby got out, but something was wrong and part of her knew what it was. The baby wasn't crying like his twin had previously done, and he wasn't breathing either.   
  
After cutting the umbilical cord, Elrond took his youngest away from the birthing bed, placing him on a nearby table, and tried in vain to have him breathe. Galadriel had to put a restraining hand on his shoulder to stop him; they both knew it was futile to try. The baby was dead.   
  
This fact devastated Elrond, and he slowly made his way to his wife's side, tears pouring from his eyes. He meant to tell her, but she already knew, and had taken a decision of her own.   
  
Celebrian knew that she couldn't go on, knowing that if she had been stronger then she would have both of her sons alive; so with one's death on her conscience, she simply gave up the will to live.   
  
So before Elrond could utter a word, she whispered.   
  
"Call him Elladan."   
  
Then she fell back on her pillows, her eyes rolling back. The Lady of Imladris was no more.   
  
Elrond's heart shattered, but one look at his infant son in the arms of Glorfindel and he knew what to do.   
  
Pushing back all of his emotions, he swiftly made it to the blond elf and took his son in his arms.   
  
He looked at the two occupants of the room, Galadriel and Glorfindel and in a voice that left place for no arguments, he said.   
  
"My wife died giving birth to Elladan, there was no other."   
  
Then he strode out of the room without looking back, Elladan safely cradled in his arms, leaving the two grief stricken elves to look mouth opened at his retreating form.   
  
**_TBC…_**  
  
**A/N:** Still blaming it on her, not me >:)!!!!!!!!  
  
And, like always my huge thanks goes to Trin for beta reading this, and also huge thanks to Rhonda since *I* never had children, she did LOL, so she helped me with the details in the first part. 


End file.
